# pen

Pronunciation: say "PEN" /pɛn/

## Noun

1. A handheld instrument for writing or drawing with ink; also, ink as opposed to pencil, as in 'write your answers in pen'.
   - Simple: A tool for writing or drawing with ink, or ink itself rather than pencil, as in 'write in pen'.
   - _He pulled a fountain pen from his jacket pocket to sign the contract._
   - _The cheap pens in the drawer had all dried out._
3. A fenced enclosure used to hold domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.
   - Simple: A small fenced area for keeping farm animals such as sheep or cows.
   - _At dusk the shepherd drove the flock into the pen._
   - _The cattle pens near the market were full before the auction._
4. A writer, or a writer's characteristic style of writing.
   - Simple: A writer, or the way that person writes.
   - _The novel bears the unmistakable mark of a master's pen._
   - _Some of the finest pens of the century contributed to the magazine._
5. Ellipsis of vapor pen: a slim electronic cigarette, often one used to inhale cannabis or another drug rather than nicotine. — Ellipsis of vapor pen (“electronic cigarette”).
   - Simple: Short form of vapor pen. It means an electronic cigarette that people breathe in from.
   - _He set his pen down and exhaled a cloud of vapor._
   - _She took a quick puff from her pen, and the car smelled faintly of strawberry._
6. A handheld device, shaped like a pen, used to inject a measured dose of medication such as insulin or epinephrine.
   - Simple: A small device shaped like a pen, used to inject medicine such as insulin.
   - _Diabetics often carry a pen so they can dose insulin discreetly._
   - _He jabbed the epinephrine pen into his thigh as the reaction worsened._
7. A pen-shaped tool for writing, drawing or selecting on a touchscreen or graphics tablet, or, on older displays, a light pen.
   - Simple: A tool shaped like a pen for writing, drawing or choosing things on a screen or tablet.
   - _The operator moved the pen across the display to highlight the target cell._
   - _Designers on early CAD systems sketched directly on the monitor with a pen._
9. In baseball, the bullpen: the area where relief pitchers warm up, or the relief pitchers taken as a group.
   - Simple: In baseball, the place where extra pitchers warm up before they enter the game, or those pitchers as a group.
   - _The manager went to the pen in the seventh inning._
   - _The team's pen blew a three-run lead in the ninth._
10. A state or federal penitentiary for people convicted of felonies. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A prison where people who have committed serious crimes are kept.
   - _He did a ten-year stretch in the pen before making parole._
   - _Word spread through the pen that the warden was retiring._
11. In soccer, a penalty kick: a direct shot at goal awarded against a team for a foul committed inside its own penalty area. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In soccer, a free shot at the goal given to punish the other team for breaking a rule.
   - _The ref pointed to the spot and awarded us a pen in the final minute._
   - _He stepped up confidently and buried the pen in the top corner._
12. An adult female swan.
   - Simple: A grown female swan.
   - _The pen guarded the nest while the cob patrolled the surrounding water._
   - _A pen will incubate her eggs for more than a month before they hatch._

## Verb

2. To write a text such as an article or book.
   - Simple: To write something such as a book, letter, or article.
   - _Journalists often pen opinion pieces under tight deadlines._
   - _She penned a heartfelt letter to the committee._
8. To shut animals in an enclosure, or to confine people in a small space they cannot easily leave, often with in or up.
   - Simple: To put animals into a fenced space, or to keep people in a small space they cannot easily leave.
   - _Ranchers pen their cattle before branding season._
   - _She penned the goats in a corner of the field._

## Noun

13. A feather, especially a large flight feather, or in poetry a bird's wing. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old poetic word for a bird's feather or wing.

## Other meanings

- (noun) In computing, an informal short form of penetration: getting into a computer system or network.
- (noun) A squid's internal shell, a slender, transparent structure of chitin and protein that stiffens the mantle and resembles a quill pen.

## Origin

**Meanings 3, 9–10** — Old English penn became Middle English pen, penne ("enclosure for animals"). It goes back to Proto-Germanic and perhaps further to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "pointed peg, nail," and pin may be related. The "prison" sense started in 1845 as a figurative stretch to an "enclosure for persons." Later, by 1884, penitentiary influenced it, since people took pen as an abbreviation of that word.
**Meaning 8** — The verb grew out of the noun penn in Old English, where *pennian meant to close, lock, or bolt. That became Middle English pennen. Low German has a related verb, pennen, used for securing a door with a bolt.
**Meanings 1–2, 4–7, 13** — From Middle English penne, via Anglo-Norman and Old French penne, from Latin penna ("feather"), from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rush, fly." The same root gives Ancient Greek pterón ("wing") and, through the Germanic /p/ → /f/ sound change, English feather. It is a doublet of panne, penna, and pinna.
**Meaning 12** — Of uncertain origin; it has been compared with hen.
**Meaning 11** — A clipping of penalty.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).